Last week, the College welcomed over 70 prospective students to the Multicultural Visit Program. MVP is an opportunity for prospective students to visit campus for a weekend and live with a student ambassador. During the pandemic, fewer prospective students were able to visit, and they weren’t allowed to stay in dorms. This session of the program hosted the largest cohort since 2020 and resumed regular operations. 

“The main purpose of MVP is first off acknowledging that Oberlin is a predominantly white institution,” Assistant Director of Admissions and MVP Ana Richardson, OC ’18, said. “The whole point is to try to bolster the community of students of color, low-income students, and also first-generation students. So a student can either be first gen, … low income, or a student of color to qualify.” 

The Admissions Office finances travel for prospective students, in addition to costs incurred while on campus. During that time, prospective students tour the campus and eat at the dining halls, as well as go to events and classes. This year, many joined in with performances at Afrikan Heritage House Soul Session or sat in the pews of Finney Chapel for Organ Pump. 

“We put a lot of money into making sure that we are actually bringing in more students of color, and the number one indicator of if somebody will choose your school is if they’ve been on campus,” Richardson said. “So the point of this is to bring in students of color, but also to have students who wouldn’t have had the opportunity to come to campus without it. We pay for their flights, and we pay for everything while they’re here too.”

Many MVP attendees have applied Early Decision and been accepted in recent years. These students state that it was the community and diversity that encouraged them and strengthened the appeal to attend. 

“MVP was the biggest part of me coming to Oberlin, especially because I didn’t know what Oberlin was until a counselor here told me to apply for MVP,”  Cyril Amanfo, OC ’22, an Admissions counselor, said. “I met people who I still know now. I saw everything that Oberlin really had to offer in less than 72 hours. So it was really the biggest part of why I’m here now.”

Each prospective student was paired with one of 30 student ambassadors, giving them a chance to explore the campus with one of their future classmates, as well as ask their hosts questions about the Oberlin experience.

At the end of the program, prospective students can speak with the Admissions Office as well as ask questions to current students. After the weekend is over, MVP participants are sent a survey asking them to detail their experience. 

“I really enjoyed Oberlin,”  prospective student Toni J. Dismuke, who hails from Atlanta, said. “Since it is in Ohio, [I] thought it was gonna be a very quiet, very small town. I thought that the days were gonna be empty, and you’re just gonna sit in the dorms, but there’s something happening every five minutes. Like when we first got here, there was a parade going on. They drew us in, and we danced in the middle of this circle. It was just something to do, and it wasn’t performative. These events were happening with or without us. And it’s just the fact that they’re very open and that people were doing things for them. It’s not a show, this is how it is.”

There are several MVP programs starting back up this year, and College students can expect another round of prospective students on campus in the coming weeks. 

“This is one of the most important programs to me that we put on college-wide because I know it got students like myself here,” Amanfo said. “It puts up an opportunity for students who otherwise wouldn’t have that opportunity. And that’s just really special to be part of that team now and watch students have that same opportunity.”

The vigil was organized by College third-years and ADC co-chairs Maya Yin Fahrer and Haley Sablay and took place on the porch of Wilder Hall. Several speakers addressed the crowd from the top steps of Wilder, expressing their personal experiences and reactions to the shootings. A crowd of students gathered in solidarity and in grief, sitting on the ground below the steps as the speakers spoke intimately of their life experiences as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. 

Following the event, students paid their respects before an altar adorned with oranges, flowers, and incense. Many wrote statements of solidarity and support on the sidewalk. As the stories and experiences elicited grief and memories of similar traumas, members of the congregation followed the main speaking event with a more intimate debrief conversation in a room in Wilder. 

 “It’s 70 degrees out, [and] I think that was like a gift from the Earth saying like, ‘You know, everybody’s sitting out in Wilder, and we’re about to say a bunch of really intense s**t to them,’” Yin Fahrer said. “Maybe it’ll ruin their beautiful sunny day, but it’s ruined so many beautiful sunny days for all of us. And so I think I want them to sit in their discomfort knowing that they’re potentially — and honestly, I would say, are — perpetuating stereotypes that directly cause anti-Asian sexualized violence.” 

Yin Fahrer expressed that these hateful stereotypes are predicated on the erasure of the Asian experience and representation, especially at Oberlin. 

“You get this feeling that either I’m a body or I’m a caricature,” Yin Fahrer said. “And I think that’s where it comes in most at Oberlin. I want people to realize that they are not as woke as they think they are. … I want people to hear what we say and realize that they have no idea that we were dealing with this, reckon with that, and realize that they’ve had no Asian-American or Asian global history education about U.S. imperialism, and know how that affects how they see us.” 

College fourth-year Lea Watkins-Chow felt empowered by the community surrounding her at the vigil, highlighting the intimacy, care, and support she received amid the debrief conversation following the emotionally-taxing event. According to Watkins-Chow, the vigil was rooted in Oberlin’s long history of multicultural solidarity and activism. 

“I felt incredibly grateful to be in community with so many vulnerable, courageous people (specifically Asian women and queer Asians),” Watkins-Chow wrote in a message to the Review. “I also felt like we held space for so many people we don’t know or can’t name: all of the radical Asian Americans who have come before us at Oberlin. In particular, (my understanding is that) in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Asian Americans on campus knew the radical political nature of the identity of Asian American. They organized alongside Black and Brown students and created spaces like [Afrikan Heritage House], Third World House, Third World Co-op, and orgs like Asian American Alliance. Sitting in that room felt like a continuation of the history of activism, resistance, and care by Asian Americans on Oberlin’s campus.”

The Build Back Better Act will direct $3.5 trillion toward housing, education, climate, and other social programs. Demonstrators protested last week as part of one final push before negotiation on the bill ends this Sunday. To Sunrise’s Ohio chapters, the most important player is Senator Sherrod Brown.

Starting around 1 p.m., the group walked from the Cleveland Public Square to Brown’s office and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority headquarters. Their march marked the end of a six-month-long organizational effort to support the final legislation on a bill that will include public transit in infrastructure funding.

“We’re making sure Senator Brown, our senator in Ohio who has a big role in the Senate, is urging other people and is making his voice heard [about] how important it is to pass [the bill],” said Courtney Horner, College second-year and Sunrise Oberlin event organizer.

The bill involves $10 billion of public transit funding for the country over the next ten years and is projected to create 10 million clean energy jobs. Horner is hopeful that the legislation will be a stepping stone to greater progress.

“We are fighting for electric buses,” Horner said. “The big thing is shifting jobs away from fossil fuel industries and into these other industries. If we have new transportation jobs, a lot of people who have currently worked in coal mines … can now be trained in these jobs pretty easily. That would also factor into mitigating climate change.”

This sentiment rang clear throughout the protest’s crowd of roughly 60 people. The group retained its energy as the temperature dropped and rain trickled down. Demonstrators continued to sing, chant, and march. Despite the cold, College first-year Natalie Dufour had warm feelings about the rally.

“I think there were 10 or so different organizations there,” Dufour said. “We were all there for a common cause. And even when it started raining, … and it was not a very fun [physical] atmosphere, … the feeling was [still] incredible. No one left when it started raining; no one was like, ‘Oh, we don’t want to be here anymore,’ because everyone was there, united in this common cause to demand equitable public transportation. So it was really, really exciting to be there and to be a part of that.”

Sundance, executive director of the Cleveland American Indian Movement and a Muskogee person of the Turtle Clan, began the event with a prayer. He thanked his ancestors and the spirits of the land who, according to the prayer, provided the world with life.

Following this prayer, City Council President Linda Slocum recited Oberlin’s 2017 proclamation, which replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Following these opening remarks, the event lasted for an hour as students and residents held signs at the College Street and Main Street corner of Tappan Square. The signs both acknowledged the ongoing violence of settler colonialism and honored the histories and cultures of Indigenous peoples.

Jean Foggo Simon, clerk of Oberlin City Council and member of the Indigenous People’s Day Committee, was integral to helping the city adopt the holiday in 2017.

“I think it’s long overdue for a celebration like this and to recognize what Columbus really did in his life,” Simon said. “I’m Native — Pequot — and I never knew anything about Columbus [Day] because we didn’t observe it. … This sort of gave me the opportunity to sort of come out and acknowledge who I really am.”

Amplifying Simon’s wish to recognize Columbus as who he really was, Sundance stated that the holiday helps spread awareness about the ongoing violence perpetrated against Indigenous peoples.

“Atrocity has been repeated throughout the centuries,” he said. “Even ’til this day, we have a highly disproportionate number of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. And, you know, it should be noted that we represent [approximately] 1 percent of the population. So I feel that it’s important to let people know that Columbus raped children and that Columbus was taken home and charged for crimes against humanity. Yet he has a holiday in this country as if he can do no wrong. … In order to honor the truth, you have to tell the truth.”

The Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee hosts screenings at the Oberlin Public Library on the third Thursday of every month.

College third-year and SLAC Treasurer Mira Newman believes that students have unique leverage in the push for workers’ rights on campus. 

“As students, we have a lot of privilege, and the institution cares what we think and what we do,” Newman said. “So our job is to help support unions in any way we can to increase visibility.”

The 80 posters created during the event will be displayed in dining halls around campus.

“It’s so management knows that we are still paying attention to what is going on and watching how they treat workers, and also just general support for the union,” Newman said.

SLAC meetings take place on Sundays from 2–3 p.m. Email oberlinslac@gmail.com for more information.

In a Black History Month post on Instagram last week, College third-year Nasirah Fair highlighted the story of the 19th century sculptor Edmonia Lewis, who is best known for her representation of Afro-Indigenous subjects. During her brief time as a student at Oberlin, Lewis was repeatedly harassed and then banned from registering for her last term at school. 

Fair says that she chose to draw attention to Lewis’ story not only because it is rarely discussed by the College, but also because it speaks to a continuing culture of violence and disrespect toward Black women on campus that has affected Fair personally.

“I think that when it comes to Edmonia Lewis, her life story mirrors that of so many other Black women, specifically at predominately white institutions [that] abuse them and in the same breath, use their accomplishments for clout,” Fair wrote in an email to the Review. “Black women continue to be disrespected on Oberlin’s campus, [and] this is shown in the way that [there] are only a select few number of Black women professors who have received tenure.”

According to Alexandra Letvin, assistant curator of European and American Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Lewis started at Oberlin in 1859 in the Young Ladies’ Preparatory Department before joining the Young Ladies’ Course from 1860–1863. In 1862, two white female classmates accused Lewis of poisoning their drinks, after which a white mob violently assaulted her. John Mercer Langston, abolitionist and Oberlin graduate, represented Lewis and won her case. 

The following year, Lewis was accused of stealing art supplies. Although she was again acquitted, she was barred from registering for her last term. She left Oberlin in 1864 and moved to Boston, where she began her career as an artist, selling portrait medallions of famous abolitionists. 

“It’s clear Edmonia Lewis was mistreated at Oberlin — both by individuals and by the institution — but it’s difficult to speak about her experience on a more personal level because, as far as I know, we don’t have any surviving letters or other documents to give us insight in her own words about her time here,” Letvin wrote in an email to the Review. “Today, I think it’s important to balance a pride in Oberlin’s progressive history with a recognition of the stark disconnect that can exist between progressive ideals and the realities of an individual like Edmonia Lewis’ lived experience here.”

To Fair, part of acknowledging this disconnect is honoring Lewis’ legacy in a meaningful way. In her post, Fair pointed out that the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People closed in May 2018, which she wrote demostrates a deprioritization of both Lewis’ memory and support for current Black students, particularly Black women.

“There does need to be some kind of accountability from the college and that could be in the form of creating intentionally, monetarily funded, safe spaces for Black people of marginalized genders on this campus — specifically Black women,” Fair wrote in her email to the Review. 

Fair believes that there are many ways the College could do more to honor Lewis’s name and support its current students. 

“There aren’t any programs with funds specifically for Black women, although a few of us have been considering restarting Sisters of the Yam, an organization for Black women to come together and support one another,” Fair wrote. “However, so many of us are burned out that it’s been hard to get that off the ground. I think a scholarship could be made in her name, but truly, I don’t have the answers. All that it would take is for someone to put real thought into how to honor her legacy. Up until this point, there’s been no real outrage.” 

Currently, the Allen is displaying one of Lewis’ sculptures in its permanent collection. The sculpture depicts James Peck Thomas, who wrote an autobiography about his experience journeying through Europe and the United States in the 19th century as a Black man.

“The AMAM’s sculpture is the only known surviving portrait bust by Lewis of an African American, which makes it particularly important to foreground the identities and stories of both artist and sitter,” Letvin wrote. “Our label does explicitly address the 1862 poisoning accusation and subsequent attack and trial, but it does not mention the second false accusation that prevented her from graduating, which is something we should consider changing.”

While the Allen’s display of Lewis’ work addresses the racism she experienced in her time at Oberlin, Fair says her story isn’t often discussed on campus.

“I am so glad that people are becoming aware of this story,” Fair wrote. “I didn’t realize how many people actually didn’t know — and it clearly goes to show how much work needs to be done here.”